


Purple Bruises Under Your Ribs

by CelticxPanda



Series: The City is Contagious [7]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Aged-Up Turtles, F/F, Gen, Late at Night, Martial Arts, Minor Violence, Mugging, Non-Graphic Violence, Not that he needed to be in this case lol, Original Character-centric, Protective Donatello (TMNT), Self-Insert, Subways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28410597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticxPanda/pseuds/CelticxPanda
Summary: Meg could probably stand to pay more attention when getting home late at night, but she thinks she handles herself just fine (and Donatello can't really argue).
Relationships: Donatello (TMNT) & Original Female Character(s), Donatello (TMNT)/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The City is Contagious [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063859
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Purple Bruises Under Your Ribs

Meg knew, as a young woman who was usually out very late at night in New York City, that she really should pay more attention to her surroundings while heading home. But she also knew that if she had to travel on the subway without music blasting in her ears, she would literally die. Just. Bam! Right on the floor. No more existence. And that just wouldn’t do. Who’d pay the bills so Robin could have a decent place to live while searching for a job that didn’t fuck her over? And who’d put up with Donnie’s nonsense? Lord knows the library had a hard enough time filling the position before she joined up. And no one else would be nearly as understanding of Donnie’s turtle-ness as she was, right?

Probably.

So you’ll have to forgive her if she didn’t realize she was being followed until another young woman on the train (from the look of her, she was probably a bartender at one of the many clubs and bars that catered to the university crowd) pointed it out to her. 

“I saw him come in after you,” the woman said after getting her attention. “He kept looking at you while we were waiting for the train. Do you know him?”

“Nup,” Meg admitted easily. She took out her phone, pretending to scroll through texts for a moment before snapping a photo of the guy. “Thanks for the warning.”

“You going to be okay?” 

“Probably,” Meg said with a shrug as the subway came to a stop. She was a stop early for her apartment...but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at this point. 

She waited until the last minute, hopping out of the train car just before the doors closed. The man scrambled to get off before the doors shut on him, causing the nice announcement lady to yell at him to ‘stand back from the doors’. Meg didn’t bother to act like she wasn’t aware of what was going on at this point, bolting for the stairs. A runner she was not, but if she could just put a bit of distance between her and the guy following her, she might be able to find a fire escape to hide out in for a few minutes. 

She just managed to get out of the station and about halfway down the block when the guy caught up to her, grabbing her by the shoulder. Without hesitating, Meg turned, wrapping her arm around his to lock him in place. It’d been years since she took martial arts classes, but some things never went away. 

“The fuck do you want?” she shouted. She’d likely wake at least a few folks up with that. “The fuck you’ve been following me for?”

The man slapped his other hand over her mouth. “Shut the fuck up, bitch! You’re gonna get me caught.”

Meg wanted to say that was the damn point, but she wasn’t about to let this guy’s disgusting fingers get any more acquainted with her mouth. 

Instead, she punched him just below the ribs. Hard. And then she did it again. 

“What the fuck?” the man hissed, pushing at her face. “Quit fighting, crazy broad!” 

Yeah, Meg thought with an obvious roll of her eyes. That was going to happen. She grabbed the man’s collar, pulling him forward. She kicked at his ankle, making him lose his balance. His hand fell away from his face as she threw him to the ground, jumping back with a practiced ‘Ki-yah!’. 

Lights were starting to come on now, and that was when the man realized he’d picked the wrong library aide to fuck with.

“Fuck this,” he grumbled, scrambling to his feet. “You ain’t worth the trouble!” 

“That’s what they all say,” Meg said, waving as he ran off down the street back towards the subway station. 

“Oi!” 

Meg turned towards one of the buildings, seeing an old lady standing in the doorway, cane in one hand and cell phone in the other. Oh, hey! She knew that old lady! 

“Hey there, Dr. Berkowitz!” she called jovially. “Nice night, huh?” 

“Meg? Is that you? What the hell is going on out here?” Dr. Berkowitz demanded, squinting out into the dark behind thick coke-bottle glasses. “Who was that man? Was he bothering you?”

“I think the bruises I gave him are gonna bother him a lot more than he bothered me,” Meg admitted with a laugh, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “I’m alright, Dr. Berkowitz. Don’t worry about it.” 

Dr. Berkowitz gave her a look of incredulousness before shaking her head. “Just be sure to file a police report in the morning, dear. I’d hate to see another one of our fine librarians getting harassed because young men don’t know how to keep their hands to themselves.” 

Meg held back her instinct to correct her about the whole librarian thing. “You got it, Dr. Berkowitz! You have a nice night now.” 

“Be safe, dear!” 

“Tell that to the fuckers laying their hands on me!” 

Meg managed to make it another block before yet another poor soul decided to touch her. She whirled, ready to throw hands at whoever the fuck was keeping her from getting home this time, only to find Donatello standing there, hands up in shock at Meg’s rather violent reaction to his presence. 

“Christ on a cracker, Donnie! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Meg scolded, hands immediately falling. 

“Who on a what, now?” Donatello asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Meg said, waving it off. “What are you doing here, anyway?” 

“You’re not the only one who lives in Brooklyn,” he said. “A friend of mine heard that ruckus you made and called to ask if I could lend a hand. Seems I didn’t have to.”

“Nup!” Meg said with a grin, lifting her arm to show off her nonexistent muscles. “I took care of him pretty handily. It’s nice to see that black belt I got as a kid getting some use, ya know.” 

“Uh-huh…” Donatello didn’t sound convinced. “I’m going to walk you home.”

Meg’s proud expression soured. “What? Why?! I handled that situation just fine on my own, thank you very much!” 

“I know,” Donatello insisted. “But...just for my peace of mind. Besides, just because you can handle one opponent, doesn’t mean you could handle multiple opponents. And guys like that usually have a buddy or two around to help him avenge his honor.” 

“Ugh, fine!” Meg grumbled, shoving her hands in her pockets. “It just feels weird.”

“What does?” 

“You knowing where I live,” Meg said. “It feels weird.”

“How so?”

“I dunno,” Meg said with a shrug. “Wait, did you say someone called you? You have a phone?”

“Of course I do,” Donatello said, his tone a bit huffy. “In this day and age, it’s silly to go without one.”

“Dude, the fuck? Give me your number!” 

Donatello flinched back as Meg made grabby hands in his direction. “What? No! You’ll just send me weird things.”

“Meme sharing is the millennial love language!” Meg insisted. “C’mon! If you know where I live, I should know your number. It’s only fair.” 

Donatello pulled a face, clearly realizing she was right and kind of hating it. He sighed, pulling out his phone from the brown messenger bag he carried almost constantly. “Alright, alright. Just don’t send anything too weird, alright?”

Meg grinned deviously. “I make no promises.” 

Donatello sighed once more, but Meg caught the smile on his face. “Of course you don’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> Why yes, I'm still on my TMNT bullshit, why do you ask? 
> 
> Also, I love Dr. Berkowitz, and I need to have her show up more in following oneshots (I have a lot already written and I'm not sorry lol)


End file.
